Blurbs for GAD Anthologies

(Note: Books are listed alphabetically.)

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Alfred Hitchcock's Daring Detectives (1969)

 

Random House (abridged edition, 1982)

Cover price: (TPB) $2.50

 

Note: Black type on a red background again -- erk!

 

'Daring detectives look for trouble!'

 

• 'Ellery Queen wonders why a cat-hating old lady is buying cats ....
• 'A kid named Frankie searches for a murder case that his detective father can solve ....
• 'Perry Mason tries to clear a known criminal mixed up in a robbery ....
• 'Hercule Poirot bets that he can locate a missing financier -- without leaving home!

 

'Watch these bold sleuths and four others take on tricky, brainteasing cases -- and find excitement and danger. Their stories -- selected by Alfred Hitchcock -- will have you gasping, chuckling, and chewing your nails!

 

'The authors represented in this fine anthology are:

 

John Dickson Carr

Agatha Christie

August Derleth

Erle Stanley Gardner

Stuart Palmer

Hugh Pentecost

Ellery Queen

Cornell Woolrich'

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Classic Mystery Stories (1999)

Edited by Douglas G. Greene

 

Dover Books (1999)

Cover price: $3.50

 

'A tribute to the first great age of fictional sleuthing, this delightful collection of 13 mystery classics is devoted to the genuine tale of ratiocination, "in which the detective solves the crime by investigation and observation, by using his or her wits."

 

'Included among these gems, written between 1841 and 1920, are Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," widely acknowledged as the first detective story; Charles Dickens' "Three Detective Anecdotes," in which a policeman is the detective-hero; Jack London's "The Leopard Man's Story," featuring an unusually grisly but thoroughly plausible murder method; "The Phantom Motor," by Jacques Futrelle; as well as tales by Wilkie Collins, Gelett Burgess, Susan Glaspell, E. C. Bentley, Rodrigues Ottolengui, Baroness Orczy, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Melville Davisson Post, and H. C. Bailey.

 

'Douglas G. Greene, a widely recognized authority in the field of mystery fiction, provides an introduction and informative headnotes for the stories.'

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Cosmopolitan Crimes (1971)

(a. k. a. More Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Cosmopolitan Crimes)

Edited by Hugh Greene

 

Penguin Books (1972)

Cover price: $1.95

 

COSMOPOLITAN CRIMES

 

'The foreign rivals of Sherlock Holmes face a sinister array of villains in these thirteen detective stories by contemporaries of Conan Doyle. A companion volume to The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Cosmopolitan Crimes shifts the scene to foreign locales where brilliant sleuths challenge Holmes at his own game. Whether the cases involve a lost bracelet in Belgium, anonymous letters in Vienna, a Mexican seer, or a beautiful woman who orders a doctor to chop off her finger, here are adventure, suspense, and brain-teasing mystery!'

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Detection by Gaslight: 14 Victorian Detective Stories (1997)

Edited by Douglas G. Greene

 

Dover Books (1997)

Cover price: $3.50

 

'This newly compiled anthology of turn-of-the-century detective stories pays tribute to those days when supersleuth Sherlock Holmes and his fellow investigators dominated fictional crime. A rich and varied collection of short, masterfully written pieces of Victorian and Edwardian crime fiction, the volume comprises a trove of extraordinary and rare material, some of it never before published in book form.

 

'Among the 14 selections are "The Return of Imray," an unusual detective story by Rudyard Kipling set in India; "The Tragedy of the Life Raft," one of the last stories written by Jacques Futrelle before he sailed on the Titanic; "The York Mystery" by Baroness Orczy, an Old Man in the Corner story not in standard collections; "The Copper Beeches" by Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the less frequently anthologized Holmes stories; "The Divination of the Zagury Capsules" by Headon Hill, in which a London detective is assisted by a Hindu mystic; plus tales by G. K. Chesterton, Catherine L. Pirkis, Silas K. Hocking, and others.

 

'Carefully selected by detective fiction authority Douglas G. Greene, who also provides an insightful introduction and a brief preface to each story, these lesser-known but riveting tales will delight mystery fans and crime fiction buffs alike.'

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Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, The (1973)

(a. k. a. The Crooked Counties)

Edited by Hugh Greene

 

Penguin Books (1974)

Cover price: $2.25

 

THE FURTHER RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

 

'This new collection of early twentieth-century crime stories completes the sinister trio begun by The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Cosmopolitan Crimes: Foreign Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Whether investigating amber beads or the contents of a coffin, a German dispatch-box or a murder by proxy, the ingenious sleuths of these thirteen tales prove that Holmes was not the only master of the dangerous art of detection. On foot, by bicycle, or with the compliments of the British railways, these detectives pursue some of the most colorful and chilling characters in the literature of crime. All the stories are set in the country. As Holmes himself once said, "It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."'

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Locked Room Puzzles (1986)

Edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Bill Pronzini

 

Academy Chicago Publishers (1991)

Cover price: not given

 

Note: Cover is all white with black text; front cover image is a large, black keyhole.

 

Vol. 3: Locked Room Puzzles

 

'Recently, Academy Mystery Novellas were launched as the beginning of a series of previously uncollected short mystery novels by masters.

 

'Women Sleuths (#1) and Police Procedurals (#2) were published to critical acclaim. Robin Winks in the Boston Globe described them as "Two volumes ... from the enterprising Academy Chicago Publishers and both $4.95 in paperback (a real bargain) bring back eight novellas which ought not to have been lost." Marilyn Stasio, noticing Women Sleuths in her syndicated review column, "Mystery Alley," called them "a handsome new novella series," while Robert McCormick in the New York Daily News advised readers of Police Procedurals to "Pin back your ears and feast on four heretofore obscure novellas by gifted crimewriters."

 

'Now #3 in the continuing series is the genre of Locked Room Puzzles, four novellas that are ingenious in construction and solution.'

 

'JOHN DICKSON CARR, The Third Bullet

Charles Mortlake is found murdered in a room to which no one could have had access.

 

'BILL PRONZINI, Booktaker

The Nameless Detective must find out how valuable books and documents have been stolen from an antiquarian bookshop with a faultless alarm system.

 

'CLAYTON RAWSON, From Another World

Two people are found apparently murdered in a sealed room, and Merlini, the famous magician, must discover how and why the crimes were committed.

 

'EDWARD D. HOCH, Day of the Wizard

The inscrutible Simon Ark must solve the mystery of a wrecked plane in the desert and its strange cargo, an enigmatic magician and a drugged blonde.'

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Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, The (1970)

Edited by Hugh Greene

 

Penguin Books (1971)

Cover price: $1.95

 

THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

 

'These thirteen stories prove that Sherlock Holmes stood by no means alone as a private detective in late-Victorian and Edwardian London. There were other narrow-eyed sleuths who assumed disguises, ordered private trains, and showered sovereigns on hansom-drivers. Some of them, like Martin Hewitt and Dr. Thorndyke, were razor-sharp and utterly incorruptible. Others, such as Romney Pringle and the sinister Dorrington, were equally acute but all out for themselves ... and the devil take the law. Among the undeservedly forgotten authors: Max Pemberton, Arthur Morrison, Guy Boothby, and Ernest Bramah -- each successfully challenging Conan Doyle at his own game.'

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Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, The (2008)

Edited and introduced by Nick Rennison

 

No Exit Press (2008)

Cover price: (TPB) $16.95

 

Note: The cover is all red, with black type (a poor contrast), white type, and a little yellow thrown in.

 

'Sherlock Holmes was not the only detective solving mysteries and foiling the plans of criminal masterminds in Victorian and Edwardian England. The years from 1890 to 1914 were a golden age for English magazines and most of them published crime and detective fiction. The success of the Holmes stories spawned countless imitators. This volume highlights some of those rivals of Sherlock Holmes. They include:

 

'THE THINKING MACHINE -- Jacques Futrelle's intellectual genius Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, aka the Thinking Machine, capable of solving the most baffling of mysteries through brainpower alone.

 

'CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER -- detective of the occult created by the legendary horror writer William Hope Hodgson.

 

'NOVEMBER JOE -- Hesketh Prichard's Canadian woodsman who uses his extraordinary powers of observation to track down villains and bring them to justice.

 

'CRAIG KENNEDY -- Arthur B. Reeve's scientific detective from the early 1900s who uses startling new technological advancements like X-rays and microphones.

 

'It may well be true that there has never been a detective quite like Sherlock Holmes but he did not stand alone. He had his rivals and, as this collection of short stories shows, many of their adventures were as exciting and entertaining as those of the master.'

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